ABOUT WATER POLO
Women's competition dates: September 16-23, 2000
Men's competition dates: September 23- October 1, 2000
HISTORY
There is little documentation as to the origins of water polo. However, we do know that the term "polo" is the English pronunciation of the Indian word "pulu," meaning ball. Just as the ball game played on horseback became known as "polo," the ball game played in water became known as "water polo," although there is no connection whatsoever between the two sports. Water polo made its first appearance at the 1900 Olympic Games, and it has appeared in every Games since then.
Prohibited from touching the bottom or side of the pool through four seven-minute quarters, water-polo players swim up to five kilometers in a game. They require the technique and endurance of a champion swimmer, plus a football player's finesse in passing, dribbling and shooting for goal and a rugby player's strength to battle for the ball.
Water polo may resemble a game of football (soccer) played in the water, but it actually began as an aquatic version of rugby. Today, water polo combines elements of both games — the aggression and physical contact of rugby and the skill and tactical approach of football.
The game that evolved into modern water polo began as a form of rugby football played in rivers and lakes with the object to "carry" the ball to the opponent's side.
Resort owners in England created the water-based game in the mid-1800s to attract guests, and it quickly became popular. Played in rivers and lakes, water polo then was quite different to today's game.
The sport was, if anything, even more rugged than rugby, with robust tackling and general roughhousing part and parcel of the game. Players were known to come to the surface barely conscious after long wrestling bouts underwater. Water polo at that time was so brutal, in fact, that universities in the United States banned it from their campuses.
By 1869, an Indian rubber ball began replacing the original ball which was made from a pig's stomach. One year later, the London Swimming Club developed rules for football to be played in swimming pools. The first official game was played in the Crystal Palace Plunge in London.
The modern game emerged in the 1880s when rule changes introduced in Scotland led to a faster game more dependent on skill than on brute strength. The rule changes increased water polo's popularity, and the game spread to Europe and across the British Empire.
The early games were generally exhibitions of brute strength. Passing, punting and dribbling were scarcely ever practiced. Each player considered it his duty to score goals without regard to position. A goal was scored by placing the ball, with two hands, on the top of the tank end. A favorite trick of the players was to place the five- to nine-inch ball inside their swimming suit and dive under the murky water, then appear again as near the goal as possible. If the player come up too near the goal, he was promptly jumped on by the goalie, who was permitted to stand on the pool deck.
By 1880 in Scotland, the introduction of the Trudgeon stroke permitted rule changes to make the game faster. The game moved from a rugby-style to a soccer-style of play. The goal then became a cage of ten feet by three feet and a goal could be scored by throwing the ball into this area. The small ball was changed to a leather association football (soccer ball). Players could only be tackled if they held the ball and players could only touch the ball with one hand at a time. In the late 1880s, these Scottish rules were generally adopted throughout Great Britain.
In 1888, the United States became the next country to play water polo when John Robinson, an English swimming instructor, organized a team at the Boston Athletic Association. Two years later, J.H. Smith and Arnold Heilban started a team at the Sydenham Swimmers Club (later at the Metropole AC) in Providence, Rhode Island. In the fall of 1890, the New York Athletic Club (NYAC) introduced the game.
The early American game was played in the "old" English style, but soon developed its own, distinctly American characteristics. It was a game of close formations and fierce scrimmages and was one of the roughest games ever played. The ball would be taken underwater and held with two hands. Players grabbed each other where they chose, becoming locked in wrestling grips and losing interest in the whereabouts of the ball. It was a survival of the fittest. In many underwater battles, men let go of one another only when one man was no longer able to endure without air. Players often floated to the surface or were pulled out of the water in need of resuscitation.
Because American pools were small, the water polo players continued to play according to their rules even after learning the "new" English rules. L. de B. Handley said, "There is no room for above water passing action."
The first American championships took place on January 28, 1890 in Providence where the Sydenham Swimming Club defeated the Boston Athletic Association, 2-1. By the turn of the century, the game was one of the more popular spectator sports in America.
Water polo spread to Hungary in 1889, Belgium in 1890, Austria and Germany in 1894 and France in 1895. The game was included in the Olympic Games of 1900 as an exhibition at the Paris Games. Only club teams participated and Great Britain defeated Belgium, 7-2, in the final game. A club from France took third place.
At the St. Louis Games of 1904, the United States was the only country to participate. Germany showed an interest in entering, but declined after discovering that the American-style of water polo was to be played instead of the European or English-Scottish version of the game. In succeeding year, the British continued to dominate European and Olympic play, winning Olympic titles in 1908 in London, in Stockholm in 1912 and Antwerp in 1920.
In 1911, a decisive advance was made in the game when the Federacion International de Natacion Amateur (FINA) made the English-Scottish rules obligatory for all member nations.
It is fair to state that not until the 1920 VII Olympiad in Antwerp, when twelve nations competed, did the game really become popular and internationally represented. Even then, the Germans, Austrians and Hungarians were not permitted to participate due to their involvement in World War I.
Beginning in 1928, first Germany and then Hungary began a reign of dominance over international water polo that lasted into the 1980s, when Yugoslavia, the United States, the USSR, Italy and Spain all fielded extremely competitive teams.
Development of the modern water polo ball
From the 1912 Olympics, the water polo ball was a leather soccer ball which absorbed water and became extremely heavy, slippery and lop-sided when wet. Following the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, James R. Smith (USA) developed a water polo ball made with a cotton bladder (later changed to nylon to improve performance), and a rubber fabric cover. The new ball was red, but by 1948, yellow was adopted for better visibility. Although the ball had a longer usable life and better handling qualities, allowing a faster, higher-scoring game with increased spectator interest, it did not become an official Olympic ball until 1956.
Women's water polo was played regularly in the United States until 1926, when the Nationals were won by the Los Angeles Athletic Club. After this time, the sport was considered too rough for women, and no Nationals were held for 35 years. The Ann Arbor Swim Club, coached by Rose Mary Dawson, was instrumental in reviving the sport. The U.S. Women's National Teams have been among the best in the world for the past twenty years and the thousands of women playing the sport in the United States today intend to help the U.S. stay there for many years to come.
WOMEN & WATER POLO
A century after becoming one of the first team sports in the Olympic Games, water polo is about to make another big splash. Here come the women!!!!
Women's water polo will become one of the new events at the Sydney 2000 Games, adding another dimension to a game long ranked among the most demanding.
Water polo, in fact, began as an aquatic version of rugby in the mid-1800s in England before evolving into a waterborne semblance of football (soccer). By the turn of the century, it had become so popular in Europe and North America that it was included in the program for the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris.
Tall, long-armed athletes are the prototype for the game, where 85 per cent of the body is submerged. About the same underwater percentage holds true for the grabbing, holding, kicking, wrestling and yanking of swimsuits that makes the game even tougher.
The Olympic Games
Six teams will qualify for the women's division at the Sydney 2000 Games, while
12 will compete in the men's division.
In the men's event, the qualifying teams will be divided into two pools of six for a round-robin preliminary round. The top four teams from each pool advance to the quarterfinals, and the quarterfinals winners advance to the medal rounds. The women's teams play a full round-robin preliminary round, with the top four teams advancing to the semifinals. The two teams failing to advance will play to determine fifth and sixth place.
The players
European countries have a stranglehold on Olympic gold medals in water polo,
with only the United States breaking that dominance in the first century of
competition. Great Britain was champion of the early years, but Hungary won
four of the five gold medals between 1932 and 1956. Hungary, Russia, Italy and
defending Olympic champion Spain are among the teams to watch in Sydney.
Meanwhile, a new chapter in the
history of the sport will open in Sydney when women's water polo makes its
Olympic debut The Netherlands, Australia, Russia and Italy rank as the top
teams pursuing the original gold medal for women. . By reputation, the women's
game is no tamer than the men's.
THE HUNGARIANS AND WATER POLO
Hungary has been the standout water-polo nation. From 1932 through 1956, it won four of a possible five Olympic gold medals, adding two more in 1964 and 1976. Notable Hungarian players included five-time medallist Dezso Gyarmati and Oliver Halassy, a three-time Olympian with one leg amputated below the knee from a childhood accident.
The Hungarians also were involved in the most infamous water-polo game of all, a semifinal match against the Soviet Union in the 1956 Olympic Games. It came a month after Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest to crush an anti-Communist uprising — indeed, the Hungarian players only learnt of the revolt's failure en route to Melbourne for the Games. With feelings between the two sides antagonistic, the game descended into a series of brawls and eventually was called off early with Hungary, ahead 4-0, declared the winner.
"We felt we were playing not just for ourselves but for every Hungarian," 20-year-old star forward Ervin Zador said afterward. "This game was the only way we could fight back."
While far from the norm of the game, that game ensured water polo would be known for what it is, the toughest, most physically demanding team sport in the Games. Now, as a new century beckons, defending gold medallist Spain, powerful Italy, and, yes, Hungary and Russia are the teams to beat.
European teams, as always, dominate the Olympic field. They took all three qualifying spots at the 1999 World Cup and all five at the last-chance Olympic Qualification Tournament in Hanover, Germany, in May. The United States and Kazakhstan, like Hungary, won their continental qualifying tournaments, but Egypt, the African qualifier, decided not to pursue the Games. Host Australia gained an automatic berth.
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